Keeping your team in sync

Teamwork doesn’t happen without coordination. Imagine a bunch of people walking around a pitch black room. How would they move without bumping into each other? They’d talk. Specifically, they’d start coordinating by verbalizing what they intend to do so people around them can act accordingly.

That pitch black room is your team whenever you’re not working shoulder-to-shoulder. The way you coordinate? Status updates. All to say, status updates are important. But that doesn't mean they need to be time-consuming or tedious. Enter Steady and Smart Check-ins.

Smart Check-ins are one of the core tools in Steady. Their purpose; keep individual teams in tight sync without daily stand-ups or status meetings. Here’s how they work:

• ⏰ People get reminders to check in via email, Slack, or Teams.
• 🤔 They answer three key questions; what they worked on previously, what they’re working on next, and if they’re blocked or not. An activity-aware, AI-enhanced editor makes reporting on progress fast.
• 🤖 Steady adds relevant activity from connected tools, and pushes the check-ins to their teammates. Team Highlights summarize what’s next so that everyone can get up to speed on the broad strokes in seconds.

That’s all there is to it. No standups or status meetings, no missing context, no having to remind people for updates. Just complete context, in minutes a day.

The questions

The three questions that Steady asks are the fastest and simplest way for your team to share progress, plans, and blockers. With just a few sentences or bullets, you'll know what they accomplished, where they're focused, and if they need help.

The default questions are:

1. What did you do previously? This is where your team shares what they've accomplished since the last check-in. Quick Fill will automatically update their previous intentions and pull in activity from tools like GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Linear, and Asana, saving them time.
2. What do you intend to do next? Here's where they share what they plan to accomplish before the next check-in. By sharing intentions proactively, you as a manager can provide feedback and course correct before any problems come up. Setting intentions also encourages big picture prioritization and increases ownership and autonomy on your team.
3. Are you blocked by anything? This is where team members can surface anything that is blocking them. You'll receive notifications when a blocker is entered so you can respond and unblock them fast so they can get back on track.

Use integrations to increase engagement and context

One of the ways that Steady saves time and gives maximum context is through integrations. There are two main types of integrations in Steady: chat and activity.

Chat integrations like Slack and Microsoft Teams make it easy for your teams to receive reminders and updates right in your chat tool. No more digging around the inbox for emails required.

Activity integrations collect and surface actions from the tools where your team works, like issues and code updates.

If your team has integrations connected, you'll see their activity listed underneath their check-ins and on the Activity page, which is a real-time feed of your team's activity.

If you don't see any activity from your team's tools, reach out to your administrator and ask them to set it up in Account Settings.

Configuring your team settings

Steady is built to work out of the box, so no customization is required. There are a few customizations you can make depending on your team and workflow, like the days of the week when check-ins are collected and visibility settings.

Check-in collection days

To change your team's check-in collection days, go to the Teams & People page, select "Team Settings" from the menu on the corresponding team. Then select "Check-ins" from the left-hand menu and click to enable or disable check-ins for the corresponding day.

Your team members will be prompted to provide check-ins on the highlighted days.

Team Visibility

We’re big believers in the benefits of working in the open, which is why new teams' visibility defaults to open. When a team is open, users outside of the team can view its check-ins and live goal updates, increasing awareness and coordination across teams. When it's private, updates are only visible to team members.

To update the Team visibility setting, go to the Teams & People page and select "Team Settings" from the menu on the corresponding team. Then select the "General" section and select from the Team visibility dropdown.

Getting your team ready to start checking in

Before you dive right into using daily check-ins, make sure you prepare your team.

• Provide Context: Hold a meeting or send an email explaining how daily check-ins fit into the broader team and organizational goals.
• Set Clear Expectations: Be explicit about the structure, timing, and frequency of the check-ins.
• Demo the Process: Offer a quick demonstration or a sample check-in, so team members understand the flow and expectations.
• Address Concerns: Open the floor for any questions, concerns, or potential hurdles. Be transparent about how the process will evolve over time and the flexibility for adjustments.

Send an announcement to the team

Clearly explain the purpose and benefits of daily check-ins, while addressing any concerns the team may have. It’s important to let people know that it’s not just a new ask, but something that’ll genuinely make work better for them.

Key Elements to Include:

• Purpose: Explain why daily check-ins are being introduced (e.g., fostering better communication, eliminating meetings, staying aligned on goals, removing blockers).
• Benefits: Emphasize how check-ins will improve collaboration, transparency, and ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Expectations: Outline the frequency, time commitment (e.g., 5 minutes each day), and structure (e.g., a brief update on what was accomplished, what is planned for today, and any blockers).
• Tone: Keep the tone encouraging and supportive. Highlight that this is a tool for the team's benefit, not micromanagement.

Example announcement template:

Kick off the Daily Check-ins

The first check-in is important to set the tone for the ongoing process. A well-organized and positive start will get and keep everyone on track.

• Lead by example: Participate and share your check-in first.
• Celebrate small wins: Use the first check-in to highlight small successes. React and comment to your team's check-ins, reinforcing the positive impact of the process.
• Encourage participation: Make sure everyone contributes, even if it’s just a quick update.

Keeping engagement high on your teams

Steady connects your people to their work and each other with shared goals, automated updates, and live dashboards so you can confidently focus and hit your targets together.

But if team members aren't providing regular updates through check-ins and your participation rate is low, you won't have the leading indicators, actionable insights, and delivery confidence that you need. And team members lose out on understanding the context of their efforts when others aren't participating, impacting transparency and trust on the team.

Here are some tips and best practices for keeping your team members engaged that are based on lessons learned from the thousands of teams using Steady every day.

Set a strong example

As the manager or lead, setting an example by participating in check-ins is the single best thing you can do to keep participation high. Fill in your check-in every time, and keep your own participation rate at 100%. In addition, fill out your check-ins in the style that you expect from your team members. For example, using brief sentences or specific hashtags.

This is for them as much as it is for you

In your next round of 1:1 meetings, communicate the value of the tool to your members and let them know how it benefits them (not you) by:

• Reducing the number of meetings and interruptions
• Reducing duplicative efforts
• Helping them stay connected to their work and team
• Collecting historical data and context that they can use for future self-reviews
• Increasing your ability to quickly help them out
• Reducing the number of meetings and interruptions (yes, we said it again because team members really appreciate this one).

Steady is an aggregator, not just another tool

Make sure you have activity integrations hooked up. When team members see that you are collecting their activity in one place (e.g., Jira updates, GitHub commits, etc), it signals to them that you and your organization are acknowledging the breadth of their efforts.

React to check-ins

Use the reaction emoji on the dashboard to signal to your team that you are paying attention to what they are writing. We recommend using 👍 for each check-in and celebrating wins with 🎉 or a supportive comment. Those simple gestures are some of the most effective because they show your team that you're actually reading what they write each day. And the positive feedback from you will help establish the habit of checking in.

Instantly respond to blockers

Steady will alert you by email if someone answers the "blockers" question in their check-in. That means that they cannot make progress without outside help. If you let these requests for help linger unanswered, it's a signal that you're not listening, and they'll stop engaging.

Use the Insights report during 1:1s and retros

The Insights report is a great way to create a comparison view of time periods, and allows you to create a filtered view of check-ins by team member and other variables. When team members understand that their check-ins inform 1:1 and retro discussions, they'll be more apt to take the time to fill them out.

Encourage check-in brevity

Steady will provide the most value to you and your team when the participation level is high, so we recommend optimizing for short, consistent check-ins that don't take much time to complete. If team members feel they need to write long, burdensome answers to check-in questions, they'll find ways to prioritize other work and participation will drop as a result.